Maple Syrup Taps

These are the taps that are nailed into the maple tree to capture the “liquid gold”, or maple sap.

In the early spring, when the temperature is above freezing during the day and below freezing at night, you drill a small hole into the trunk and pound in the tap and hang a pail off the notched exposed end. The thin, clear sap will slowly drain from the tap and is collected over 30 days. It takes 50 liters of sap, boiled down, to make 1 liter of maple syrup. A typical maple tree yields around 40 liters of sap over the course of a month.